Started Laying the Groundwork Long Ago

"Are we... on the east side of the Administration Palace?"

Zhong Yi closed the map and looked around.

The architectural style of Dam Zero, or rather the entirety of Operation Xianyuan Continent, exuded a sense of bizarreness.

Whether it was the Spirit Energy Station on the left or the Administration Palace ahead, the buildings weren't tall, only about two stories high.

However, no matter how you looked at these perfectly square and blocky buildings, they felt both practical and eerie.

Practical because Zhong Yi thought about it and realized they were indeed highly functional.

Eerie because he had never seen this style of architecture before...

While he was spacing out, a dark shadow beside him dashed out with a swoosh, sprinting straight toward the Administration Palace.

"Old Zhong, what are you spacing out for! If you run any slower, there won't even be leftovers!"

Zhou Yue immediately reacted, grabbing Zhong Yi and dragging him along to catch up.

The Administration Palace was tightly enclosed by a wall, and the gap on the east side was blocked by an abandoned carriage.

Fortunately, the carriage was massive and hollow, allowing two people to pass through side by side.

"How bizarre... My little sister has always been completely directionless whenever we go out for experiential learning. How is she so sharp in Junior Brother Lu's illusion?"

Zhou Yue smacked his lips in confusion.

"Maybe... there's a treasure trove ahead? Have you forgotten about that year..."

Zhong Yi smiled, bringing up the past.

That was back when he and Zhou Yue were still in the Golden Core stage. The three of them had gone to the Chaos Mystic Realm together. Everyone's five senses were affected by the realm; even Nascent Soul stage cultivators encountered the ghost wall phenomenon of walking in endless circles.

Yet, somehow, Zhou Qiaoling managed to accurately locate the treasure trove amidst the chaos, making a massive contribution to the Lingxiao Sect.

"La la la~ Oh? Why is there a Spirit Storage Box here? Hohoho, a piece of purple-grade Starfall Iron! That's thirty thousand spirit stones in the bag~~"

In the brief moment the two men were chatting, Zhou Qiaoling had already looted the single-story building outside the Administration Palace clean.

By the time Zhou Yue arrived, even the most ordinary item boxes had been turned upside down.

"Dammit... Move faster, you stupid legs!!"

Zhou Yue gritted his teeth in frustration. If his ultimate ability had finished cooling down right now, he absolutely would have stimulated his spirit meridians to sprint ahead of Zhou Qiaoling.

Zhou Qiaoling vaulted through a window and slipped into the Administration Palace in a flash. Zhou Yue and Zhong Yi were just about to follow when they heard the sound of heavy footsteps.

Turning around, they saw an Asara gun cultivator clad in thick crimson armor, holding a heavy machine gun, slowly walking toward them.

"Old Zhong... don't you think what he's holding looks just like the Gatling Pea from Spirit Plants vs. Zombies?"

Zhou Yue began making wild associations, because the weapon in the hands of this heavy armored soldier looked exactly like the mouth of the Gatling Pea.

"It really does! Could it be that Junior Brother Lu had already started laying out the concept of guns way back then? That's simply incredible!"

Zhong Yi agreed.

"Say..."

Zhou Yue wore a wicked grin.

"Do you think that Gatling in his hands... is super expensive?"

Zhong Yi's eyes lit up. "Very likely!"

Zhou Qiaoling, who was already inside the building, chimed in at this moment, "What's expensive? Let me see!"

"Then let's fight!"

Ignoring Zhou Qiaoling, Zhou Yue whipped out his Mingju 15. Just as he was about to fire, the Gatling gun in the hands of the Asara machine-gun cultivator suddenly spun up with zero frame delay.

"Rat-tat-tat!"

A dense barrage of spirit bullets swept toward the two like a torrential rainstorm.

"Holy crap! Holy crap!!"

Zhou Yue howled as he was hit, dodging desperately while his health bar plummeted rapidly.

"Damn it, I... uh?"

Amidst the hail of bullets, Zhong Yi was equally panicked. He frantically waved his hands all over his body, trying to protect his vital areas.

Then, the very next second, he realized...

He seemed completely unharmed?

Then what the hell was he dodging for...

He looked in bewilderment at Zhou Yue, who was howling from getting shot next to him, feeling utterly baffled.

The two of them were clearly standing right next to each other. Why did the Gatling bullets just graze past his own body, yet seem to grow eyes the moment they saw Zhou Yue?

"Lao Zhou, your luck is truly terrible..."

...

After taking down the machine-gunner, Zhou Yue couldn't wait to open the corpse box, but was instantly dumbfounded.

There was only a helmet.

No armor, and certainly no weapon.

The backpack only contained a few white and green rarity supplies.

"What's going on? Did Zhou Qiaoling jump out the window and steal the loot just now?!"

Zhou Yue looked at the nearby window in disbelief.

Even the most ordinary Asara rogue cultivators had helmets, armor, and weapons in their loot boxes.

How could this incredibly fierce-looking machine-gunner have an empty bag?

"Hahaha, bro, is your luck so rotten that it affected the drop rate? Hahahaha!!"

Zhou Qiaoling's smug laughter echoed from the Voice Transmission Jade Slip.

Zhong Yi and Zhou Yue exchanged a complex glance, seemingly accepting this explanation.

Because Zhou Yue's luck in the illusion...

Had always been bizarrely cursed.

"I'll do the looting next time."

Zhong Yi patted Zhou Yue's shoulder in consolation.

"Bah! It's definitely not because of my bad luck..."

Zhou Yue remained stubborn.

By the time the two of them entered the Administration Palace, the two rooms on the first floor had already been picked clean by Zhou Qiaoling.

"Dammit, her hands are so fast!!"

Zhou Yue looked at his own empty backpack. Thinking about how he hadn't even taken the white items from the machine-gunner's box, he actually felt a bit of regret, wondering if he had acted too arrogant.

Zhong Yi didn't mind these things; instead, he observed their surroundings.

The interior building materials were from the cultivation world, but the layout was designed by Lu Ze based on gaming principles, making it feel much more refreshing than it looked from the outside.

At this moment, Zhou Qiaoling was looting the Deacon Hall on the second floor with immense joy.

Inside the inner chamber of the Deacon Hall was an Immortal Master's Secret Box, as well as a massive Origin Sealing Shrine.

At first glance, it was obviously the richest spot on the east side of the Administration Palace.

Unlocking the Origin Sealing Shrine was slightly more troublesome, requiring spiritual sense to complete a simple test before it would open.

"Six... Eight... Heaven... Qian... One... Done!"

As the password was cracked, Zhou Qiaoling's spiritual sense entered the interior of the Origin Sealing Shrine.

A single-slot and a vertical double-slot black mass appeared in her vision.

"It's spinning for so long... I'm going to get something good!!"

Zhou Qiaoling was incredibly excited.

Searching along the way, she had long discovered that the longer the squares of unknown items spun, the higher the tier of the final revealed item.

This wasn't hard to understand.

Higher-tier treasures naturally required more spiritual sense to probe.

With a ding!

A single-slot golden goblet appeared before her eyes, while the second double-slot item spun for even longer.

"Longer than gold!?"

Zhou Qiaoling held her breath, her heart pounding rapidly.

"Clang!"

A heavy metallic clanking sound echoed by her ears.

She had never heard this sound before, yet she found it exceptionally pleasing.

A thick gold bar appeared within her spiritual sense.

The background was a brilliant crimson red.

"Wow!!!"

"I got a red!!!"